China's and Burma's Forests and Canadian Forest Investments

The white-handed gibbon is extinct in China and this is one of the reasons why:

Since cutting natural forest has been illegal in China since 1998 (the Natural Forest Protection Ban), the country has embarked on a massive aforestation program. This is where the alleged Yunnan timber holdings of a certain Canadian-Chinese investment company come in. But “...the allocation of land for economic land concessions (including plantations) often raises questions about how local communities have been engaged, processes for free and prior informed consent, and long-term benefits for these communities.” EU Baseline Study 1, China: Overview of forest governance, markets and Trade. European Union, June 2011). Seems like a poor, or at least unethical, basis for investment to me.

China only produces about 70 m3/year from a forest base of some 8% of the country, and most of its domestic production now is from plantations of poplar, Chinese fir and Masson pine, mainly for plywood and paper. For furniture wood and lumber, it needs to import wood. The above-mentioned EU report discretely notes, “several of the countries which are major suppliers to China’s forest products industry ...[provide] illegally sourced wood materials” and “documentation of source of origin at district levels of Chinese timber still poses some difficulties ...”. In 2005, China imported more than 1.5 million cubic metres of Burmese timber worth an estimated US$350 million. Almost all of these imports were illegal; China closed the Burmese border to logs in 2006, resulting in huge inventories of logs at the border and putting many Chinese out of work (China Blocks Timber Imports From Burma [Myanmar]: www.illegal-logging.info). Ah, but then they put through highway 14 from Kunming to Mandalay. I have read, but can’t quote any stats, that illegal logging has since increased in Myanmar again, which is now nearly depleted of forest, with the logs flowing into Yunnan. So my guess is that is anyone wants to know where the missing forest land of this Canadian-Chinese forest company is, they might look towards Myanmar for the answer. And if some investors think Chinese forest companies, or Canadian ones with Chinese operations, have overstated their timber holdings, I can guess why.

My interest in this is the rare and endangered species that live in these forests. In the last couple of years, two species of gibbon have been extirpated from China and virtually all species that depend mature forest have either disappeared or are relegated to remnant “protected” forest patches where they are still hunted for meat and other products. Vietnam, Laos and Burma are huge sources of trade in illegally harvested or captured species, and are (especially Vietnam) major conduits for animals sources in other SE Asian countries, China is the main market, and Yunnan is the main port of entry. The disappearance of forests and native wildlife from Yunnan and neighbouring countries should be reason enough for anyone not to invest in companies like this.